The City That Never Sleeps
by Nymphadora-CullenBAU
Summary: After a weekend vacation, JJ's annouces that she's leaving the BAU, and a case in New York hits the team close to home, which makes Spencer realize how important Aislinn is to him. Rated T for Minor OC Death. Ch 12 now up. COMPLETE!
1. Another Case

_**I don't own Criminal Minds. I wish I did, though; it'd help pay for college.**_

….

"Tell me, Pretty Boy, how was your weekend?" Morgan jabbed as Reid walked toward his desk.

"I'm sincerely sorry, Morgan," Reid replied in a very un-sincere way. "But a gentleman _never _reveals the events of a weekend getaway to his friends."

Prentiss chuckled. "And it appears you're not getting anything out of him, Derek Morgan," she retorted, setting down a steaming mug of coffee as she sat at her desk. "If Reid says he isn't telling, he's never going to tell you. Period."

"Besides," Reid added. "Nothing happened like _that_!"

"I bet your credit card history says otherwise," Morgan said, and hurried out of the bullpen, no doubt heading for Garcia's lair. Prentiss shook her head.

"He's desperate, that's for sure," she replied. "Do you think Garcia will say anything?"

"She gave me her word that she wouldn't tell a soul," Reid said; he was now looking at a file he had discovered in his inbox, and was giving it his almost undivided attention. "Not even Morgan."

"And that was?"

"Last night, when she picked me up at the airport."

Prentiss nodded. "Yep, he's _never_ going to find out," she concluded, also opening up a file folder. "If I know PG, she'll reveal about as much as a locked wrought-iron fence."

No sooner had she spoken than Morgan and Garcia came walking into the bullpen, JJ trailing behind them, with Morgan begging Garcia for some information.

"Come on, Mama."

"No."

"Please?"

"Not happening, Derek."

"Garcia…"

"Sorry, Sugar," the sparkly, self-proclaimed tech goddess turned to her chocolate-y hunk. "But I promised that it would be a quiet, under-the-radar, _restful_ vacation; that means, Derek Morgan, that I will not reveal the details of _anything_ that transpired during that weekend. Not even the contents of the meals they ate."

"But Baby Girl…"

"Don't Baby Girl me! I said no!" Garcia wailed, turning away. JJ chuckled as she watched them before walking through the bullpen herself.

"Hey, Spence," she said. "You look restful."

"Thanks," Reid replied. "So do you."

"I slept in all weekend long," JJ supplied, shifting the folders in her hand to reveal a single one. Another case.

Reid seemed to read her mind. "Where are we going?"

"New York," she replied. "Is Hotch in?"

Reid glanced up at the two offices on the catwalk. "He appears to be," Reid said. Both offices had light coming from within, and both occupants appeared to be at their desks, hard at work.

"Good. I'll see you in the conference room," she said, turning and heading up the stairs toward Hotch's office. He was sitting at his desk, a stack of files in front of him. But he paid them no mind; instead, he looked at a photograph of himself and a smiling young boy wearing a Little League jersey. Tucked into the corner of the frame was a still of a young blonde woman wearing a jersey for a professional league team, complete with a hat and glove.

"Hotch," she called, worried. The man glanced up, meeting her eyes.

"New case?" He asked.

"Yeah, and it's a bad one." She walked into the office and sat down. "But that's not all I wanted to say."

"What is it?" he asked. "Is it…?"

"No, Will and Henry are fine," JJ quickly disbanded the obvious fears in the Unit Chief's mind. "It's just… I've been offered a transfer to the New York offices. It came up after we got in from Los Angeles; I got a call from a Special Agent Peter Burke; I'd be working mainly with his team, but I'd be a spokesperson for the entire New York branch of the FBI. I'd have my office in the White Collar division, as a liaison, but I'd represent the entire Bureau office there."

"If this is Strauss' idea, let me talk to her; I can let you here if you don't want it," he begged.

JJ shook her head. "This past weekend, and the Billy Flynn case, made me realize that life is short and precious. I realized that I hardly see Will and Henry anymore, and I'm worried that I'll miss out on Henry's childhood… I don't want to be an absent mother, Hotch. I'm scared that one day, I'll come home to find that my own son doesn't recognize me… My worst nightmare… And I don't want that."

Hotch nodded. "I understand," he whispered.

"And I won't be that far off," she added. "It's only a short plane ride between here and the city. We found a nice house in a nice neighborhood. You're all more than welcome to visit, and we'll make time to come see all of you."

"When does your transfer go through?"

"It passed this morning," JJ confirmed. "This'll be my last case with the BAU. Will is already in New York, setting up the house. We have lots of empty rooms, so there'll be no need to get a hotel if you're ever in the city."

"So you'll just stay in New York when this case is over?" Hotch asked, and JJ nodded. "Have you thought about telling the others? Garcia and Reid especially."

"Garcia already knows," JJ whispered. "I spoke to her this morning; she's not happy about it, but there's nothing she can do about it. I told her that if she messes with the transfer, I'll have Kevin's friend in our White Collar Unit change all her passwords."

"Niko Zissou?"

She nodded. "She didn't believe it, and I know Niko would rather jump off a cliff than do something like that to her; he thinks of her as an older sister, according to Kevin, but it was the best I could do."

With that, she looked at the clock on Hotch's desk and stood up. "I'll tell the team before we brief," she reported as she walked toward the door. "I'll see you in a bit."

He nodded.

….

The team reacted differently upon hearing of JJ's departure. Garcia had already been crying when the briefing started, and the tears began anew when she repeated the announcement. Morgan closed his eyes and sighed heavily, shaking his head. Prentiss kept a cool head, but you could see the surprise and sadness in her eyes.

Rossi jumped to his feet. "Give me five minutes with Strauss. I won't stand for this," he growled.

"It's too late to do anything," Garcia replied softly. Rossi sat down, fuming.

Reid's wide brown eyes seemed to get wider, and a moment later a small gold coin came from his pocket, and he began fingering it. Hanging from another pocket, next to the pocket watch he sometimes wore, was an inexpensive silver locket with tiny false diamonds sparkling from it. The chain was broken and the picture inside had gotten so wet that it was unrecognizable, but to the young man, it was special. While he fingered the coin, a one-year medallion from the Beltway Clean Cops Association, his hand also wandered toward the locket.

Only Hotch and JJ seemed unaffected by the announcement. When everyone had finished digesting the news, JJ continued with the briefing as if nothing had happened.

"Ariel Westin, age 20, a native of New York, was found three weeks ago in Central Park on Literacy Way, under the statue of Robert Burns. Her hair was greasy and there were some indications that she was slightly malnourished, but it appears that she was fed through an IV. Four days earlier, she had disappeared from Times Square; she was supposed to be selling flyers for the play _Rock of Ages_." With that, she clicked the remote, exposing the rest of the pictures. "Shortly after Ariel was found, Janie Cossetta disappeared. Janie had just started school at NYU, and she was also found a few days after her disappearance in Central Park, but she was found by the Alice in Wonderland statue. She was 18."

"And everything was consistent with the last victim?" Prentiss asked.

"Yes; there were also markings that showed that Janie was also fed through an IV."

"Where was Janie from?" Reid questioned.

"Butler, New Jersey," JJ answered. "It's a small town; actually, Janie was from neighboring Bloomingdale; I talked to an officer DePascal, and he said Janie had always dreamed of going to New York. Janie was last seen at St. Paul's Cathedral."

"But why these two women?" Rossi asked.

"They look alike." Prentiss supplied.

"True, but notice their hair," Rossi pointed out. "Ariel had long, straight dark brown hair. Janie had shoulder-length, curly black hair."

"And the most recent victim?" Hotch asked.

JJ turned back to the screen. "Melanie Summers, 19, she was from Chicago, Illinois. She disappeared from a meat and cheese shop in Little Italy. NYPD officials expect to find her today."

"Why didn't they call us sooner?" Morgan asked, confused. "Three girls, all in their late teens and early twenties, disappear in broad daylight and turn up four days later in Central Park."

"The reason they didn't call us in until now is because the UnSub's MO changed with Melanie Summers." JJ answered, clicking the remote to show another picture. "Audrey Summers, Melanie's mother, was found dead in an alley off Canal Street. Her throat was slashed with a kitchen knife."

"He's evolved," Reid pointed out. "He appears to have snuck up behind her and slit her throat. Were there defensive marks on Audrey?"

"No, you're right, Reid, he slit her throat from behind." JJ replied.

"Alright," Hotch said, closing his folder. "Wheels up in twenty."

….

Two women and a teenage girl turned the corner outside the Tenement Museum, talking amongst themselves. None of them noticed a hooded man standing by the Subway station, watching them. His eyes were fixed on the girl, who looked about 18 or 19, with short brownish-blonde hair, but the way the sun caught it, it reminded the man of…

This one _had_ to be her; the others hadn't been right, but she was so perfect; she even looked like her…

At this point, the other two women had entered the Gift Shop, clearly on their way to get something, a trinket, or tickets.

Perfect timing.

The girl, meanwhile, was paying no attention to him; instead, she was playing with a small string on her t-shirt. She didn't see him, not until he plunged the needle into her neck. She looked… surprised. Then there was terror. A second later, she slumped to the ground. He caught her, laying her out on the ground and dragging her to a small alley next to the museum shop. As he left, he heard her mutter "Spenner… Hel'me…"

As he walked out to the store, he saw one of the women walk out, confused. "Aislinn," she called. "Aislinn, where are yo-" A second later, the man stabbed her in the stomach with a kitchen knife. Over and over. Then he whipped it off on her shirt, went to the alley and half carried, half dragged the girl down the street. He smiled.

Aislinn. What a pretty name.

….

_**Queue Criminal Minds Theme**_

_This is the first chapter. Please be sure to review!I hope you're enjoying it so far!_

_And did anyone catch the White Collar reference? _

_*~N_CBAU~*_


	2. Most Recent Victim

_**Again, I own nothing!**_

….

_So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable. ~ Christopher Reeves_

Darkness. That was what surrounded her. Darkness. It felt… fuzzy. Not normal. She had never felt this way before. It was… unsettling, to say the least.

What did she remember?

The Tenement Museum… Mom and her cousin Bethany going into the Gift Shop… Before that, her phone had vibrated… A text from Spencer… He'd had a case in the city… The guy who stood to close to the bench she was sitting on in the Subway… And the guy with the needle…

But Griggs was dead… Hotch had shot him… She remembered that quite clearly…

"_What? I was aiming for his leg!"_

Aislinn opened her eyes.

She was reminded of the tenement they had visited for their tour, except it looked… newer. There was an apparently fresh coat of paint on the wall, and the wooden floor was bare of any rugs or carpeting. And… she couldn't move her head. She couldn't feel any part of her body. No pain, but there was also… numbness.

And then the door opened….

….

A portly man in a blue NYPD outfit greeted the team at JFK Airport. At his side were two other officers, a curvy brunette woman with sparkling hazel eyes and a slender young man with a shock of white-blonde hair and ice-blue eyes.

"Agents," he began, shaking their hands as he spoke. "I'm Officer Rodriguez, these are Officers Finnegan," the blonde man nodded, "and Konopinski," the woman smiled. "We're the officers overseeing the investigation."

"I'm Agent Jareau, we spoke on the phone," JJ replied, smiling. "These are Agents Hotchner, Rossi, Prentiss, Morgan and Dr. Reid."

I'd call it a pleasure, if we weren't meeting at such an unpleasant time," Rodriguez was clearly a man of action, Reid noted; he wanted to get to business as soon as possible. "Our third victim, Melanie Summers, was found this afternoon by the pond; a couple boys taking their boats out discovered her. And another victim was taking. Brunette, 19. Poor girl's from Minnesota, and her mother's in the hospital. Doctors are reckoning that she doesn't have long, but she's hanging on."

"Do you have a file on the latest girl?" Rossi asked. "Also, some of us will want to see Melanie's body."

"As a matter of fact I do." Rodriguez handed the file to Rossi, who flipped it open. Only to nearly drop it as though it were a hot pan.

"What is it?" Prentiss asked. Wordlessly, Rossi handed her the file. She looked at the picture of the victim, her jaw dropping. "Oh, God…" she whispered, shaking her head. JJ looked over the other woman's shoulder and her eyes immediately became glassy with unshed tears. "No," she whispered softly. "No…"

"Is something the matter?" Rodriguez asked as Reid tried to look over Prentiss' shoulder. She immediately snapped the shut and tried to pass it off to Morgan, but Reid intercepted it from the darker man.

"Reid, no," Prentiss exasperatedly ordered. "You don't need to see it!"

"Spence, please!" JJ begged.

Rossi tried to pry the file from Reid's hands.

But Reid ignored them, opening the file for himself. And wishing he hadn't.

A sick swooping sensation filled his stomach, and the blood began pounding in his ears.

A pretty girl stood next to an old-fashioned tenement-style apartment somewhere on the Lower East Side. She wore a worn pair of cross-trainers, a pair of blue-green shorts, and a peasant top with a similar color scheme of flowers around the collar. A strand of hair was tucked behind her right ear, and her glasses were starting to turn dark; a pair of those Transitions lenses. Reid knew who it was without having to look at the information written on the page beneath the photograph. It was Aislinn.

"It's the most recent picture we have, taken about 45 minutes before she… disappeared." Rodriguez admitted. He seemed to be shuffling his feet.

Hotch went into business mode almost immediately; the only sign that he was affected at all was the painful look in his eyes, and the slight hitch in his usually stoic voice.

"Morgan, I want you to come with me to the morgue. Prentiss, you and Reid will go to the Tenement Museum with Finnegan. JJ will set up at the station. Dave will go with Rodriguez to the dump sites in Central Park…."

Minutes later, Reid sat in the passenger seat of the SUV while they drove behind Finnegan toward the Lower East Side. Reid wasn't paying attention to the city; his thoughts were elsewhere, in another time.

_As he disembarked the plane, Spencer was hit by the familiar Midwestern muggy air; it permeated the small ramp that he and the other passengers walked to reach the terminal. From there, Spencer walked down to the end of the terminal, through security and to the door of the airport to find…_

"_Spencer! You made it!"Aislinn dashed forward, flinging her arms around him He immediately dropped his go-bag and leather satchel, wrapping her into his arms, smiling as his memories of their most recent case, while certainly not forgotten, were pushed to the back of his mind, hopefully to gather dust while away from work._

"_It's great to see you," she said as they pulled away. "How was your flight?"_

"_Garcia booked me a seat in business class," he admittedly sheepishly. "I, um, I basically slept throughout the whole flight. Our last case didn't really leave us with the greatest memories."_

"_Yeah," she muttered, trailing off as they both remembered her phone call just a few hours ago, the nightmare and fear still fresh in her mind."Jakob got his license," Aislinn suddenly reported. "Just last week."_

"_Should I be afraid?" Spencer joked, picking up his bags and following Aislinn out to a dark-green SUV. _

_Aislinn paused for a second, a thoughtful look on her face. "…Absolutely terrified," she said. Then she chuckled. "No. He's actually a really good driver. Everyone online had made a joke out of it, though. Some people said they were gonna start walking, some said they were going to carpool… The usual stuff, basically."_

"_That's the usual stuff?"_

"_It's kind of a rite of passage when you get your license. All your friends and family joke about how you're gonna cause an accident, or how everyone's gonna find an… alternate method of transportation."_

"_Very funny," Jakob growled as he walked around the vehicle, the keys swinging from his hand._

"_Don't look at me, Jake," Aislinn defended, raising her hands in mock surrender. "I never said anything like that; I always believed in your driving skills, ever since you got us up to the cabin in one piece on Fourth of July Weekend."_

"_But if I had been driving that boat, you'd have never gotten T-boned by that psycho boat-maker," he joked. Aislinn rolled her eyes in annoyance, but there was still a small smile on her lips. _

_Spencer chuckled slightly, picking up his bags and putting them in the car, noticing that there were other pieces of luggage within the SUV's depths."What are we doing this weekend?" he asked, curious. _

_Aislinn grinned, opening the door to the SUV. "Well, since Fourth of July weekend totaled my uncle's boat, he got a new one," she started. "The insurance company and the boat seller didn't believe him when he said it'd been totaled by a sadistic serial killer, until he showed them the newspaper clippings." _

"_So… What happened?" he asked as they slid into the vehicle. _

"_They gave him a new boat. Free of charge. Same insurance policy, too." Aislinn stated, clicking her seatbelt._

"_Actually, this boat is supposed to be better," Jakob pointed out. "Faster, sleeker, top of the line model. We're all going up to try it out this weekend. You game?"_

_Spencer paused, looking confused. "'Game?'"_

"_He wants to know if you're up for it," Aislinn clarified._

_Spencer nodded. "Yeah," he said. "I'm 'game,' as you say."_

….

"Reid?" Prentiss asked. "Are you okay?"

Reid pulled himself from his reverie. "Yeah," he muttered. "I'm… I'm fine."

But he wasn't.

….

_A/N: Please drop me a review! Thanks to everyone who has, like SayidRocks and NoelArdnek. You guys rock!_

_*~N_CBAU~*_


	3. Death in the Family

_**Anyway, I'm BACK! YAY! ...I'm settled into my dorm, and well into my first week of classes. Also, just a word of warning... Updates may be sporadic at best, so bear with me; I made Orchestra this year, so that eats up my Monday nights (OM NOM NOM!), Tuesdays and Thursdays are Choir, and most of my classes this semester start at about 8 am or so. I'm also going to try to join some more clubs this year, so like I said...**_

_**Who's psyched for Season 6? I AM! :D**_

_**Again, I own nothing. Not Criminal Minds, not the movie that Reid and Aislinn watch (Can you guess it? It's a classic!), and not NYC!**_

**_Warning: Minor Original Character Death!_**

...

Will Jordan was the ME who greeted Hotch and Morgan outside the morgue.

"All three victims were the same," he admitted as he led them to the examining tables. "There were wounds on their left wrists that were consistent with the insertion of an IV, their muscles were suffering from major atrophy from being in one position for far too long and they were all killed by the same thing."

Which was?" Morgan asked.

"An overdose of sleeping pills," Will Jordan stated, handing the files to the men. "From what I could tell from the chemical makeup, it was mainly Lunesta mixed with an over-the-counter generic brand."

….

"Was there any sign of… abuse on their bodies?" Rossi asked. "Anything that may have suggested they were tortured in any way?"

Rodriguez shook his head at the older profiler. "No, there was nothing to suggest that they were abused in any way. If anything, they were very well taken care of during the last four days of their lives, if the state of their bodies had anything to do with it, other than the obvious of course."

"What about the contents of their stomachs?"

"Nothing except the pills." Rodriguez finished.

….

"So how is it that your team knows this latest victim?" Konopinski asked, helping JJ wheel a glass board into an empty conference room.

JJ shook her head. "I don't want to say anything."

"Why not?" Konopinski continued.

"Because it involves a case where we met her, and she was being targeted by an UnSub."

"UnSub?"

"Unknown subject." JJ clarified.

Konopinski nodded. "What happened during that case?" he asked

"He met her, and saved her life," JJ replied. "Then we met her again during another case, and we stopped another killer before he could get to her and our agent."

"Can I inquire into their current relationship?"

"Sorry," JJ admitted. "I'm not saying anything there."

"And why not?" Konopinski asked. "I thought you were finally opening up to me."

"Save it," JJ countered, fingering her ring, the one with Henry's birthstone. "I'm already seeing someone, and they're my friends; I'm not gossiping about the relationships my friends have with each other."

…

"We're… friends," Reid admitted, hands in his pockets.

Finnegan raised his eyebrows in question, and Reid glared back, as if daring the older man to question the young profiler's statement.

"You're friends?" Finnegan repeated, and Reid nodded. "So you've met her on cases twice in four months before now, and you're _just friends._" Finnegan smiled slightly. "I'll take that, I guess."

"Don't assume anything," Reid countered. "Besides, I noticed that earlier, your right hand brushed unconsciously toward your neck; you used to have something hanging there, possibly a memento of your girlfriend's or even your fiancée's. I'm guessing that whatever it was, you either gave it back to her, or she took it back, because one of you ended it for some reason."

Finnegan gaped. "H-How did you…"

"If you had proposed to her, you'd still be wearing whatever it was you were unconsciously looking for on your neck, and you wouldn't be quite so hard to reason with when someone tells you a girl he's with is 'just a friend.'" Reid concluded, watching a Finnegan continued to gape at him. Of course, Reid was only telling Finnegan half the truth; his relationship with Aislinn was more than just a friendship. They had called each other every night over the phone, written letters, and even visited each other on weekends. She was supposed to start school again in a few weeks…

_Keep it together, Spencer,_ he thought; he couldn't let his mind wander.

"Witnesses say they saw the suspect carry her away, pressed into his body." Prentiss reported.

"He made it seem as though she had fainted, and he was the concerned family member taking her somewhere out of the sun," Reid concluded, glancing around the area with a heavy heart. It was an old apartment, in an older neighborhood of the Lower East Side. "Lots of people around, but not a lot of foot traffic," he continued. "This guy knew that if someone saw him, they wouldn't think twice about him…" he trailed off, hands buried deep in his pockets. He didn't notice Prentiss talking on the phone until she called his name.

"Reid, Hotch wants us to go to the hospital to talk to… her mother."

Reid nodded, turning away from the alley he had been looking down; there was yellow police tape blocking the entrance, and there were bloodstains on the concrete.

He sighed softly before turning his back on the crime scene. He was going to find Aislinn. He _had _to.

…

There was a young man in the doorway, about the same age as Aislinn's cousin Cullen. His hair was a dirty dishwater blonde and curled into his eyes. He was slightly thin and quite pale, but there was a slight tan to his skin that made him look rather healthy. He loomed over her, staring at her.

"Don't worry," he soothed. "I'm a friend. I'm here to help."

Aislinn stared at him for a moment as he hooked a bag to the IV line in her arm. Whatever drug was in it made her tired… so tired….

"Don't fight it," he whispered. "Just sleep…"

"Wai…" she began to slur mutedly, fighting the heaviness that was seeping through her body. "Who…ah…you?"

The boy paused, looking at her. "I'm Marcus," he replied. "And you're Aislinn. That was the name Chase said you had." He opened the door, looking back at her. "Just rest for now," he prompted. "I'll come back later with some food." And with that he closed the door.

Aislinn's eyes shut a second later.

….

_The early morning sunlight streamed into the cabin, waking Aislinn up at a time a bit earlier than expected. She stretched, realizing that she had fallen asleep on the couch. And so had Spencer. She looked at him for a moment; he seemed so peaceful. His head was lolled back, his cheek resting on the edge of the couch._

_It appeared that they'd fallen asleep during the movie they'd watched just last night; somewhere between Inigo Montoya's big fight with the Six-Fingered Man and the end of the movie. She had giggled at how Spencer had revealed some history behind swordplay, and how she'd mention that the final swordfight between Inigo and the six-fingered man was perhaps one of the most epic displays of swordsmanship ever displayed. After that, she couldn't remember anything to save her life._

_But she smiled. The movie had been worth it. And they'd watch it again tonight, if he wanted to._

_She curled up closer to him, laying her head on his chest. She could feel his heart beating, and it sounded a rhythmic lullaby, one that lulled her back to sleep for another few hours._

….

Molly Werner wasn't long for this world. The bandages on her stomach were swaddled across her abdomen, but they and the stitches could barely stop the bleeding that managed to seep through.

"Mrs. Werner," Prentiss began as they stepped into the room. The woman was frail, taking shallow breaths, and looking at them through veiled eyes. A morphine pump sat near the bed; it whirred as Spencer went to sit in one of the chairs offered for patrons in the hospital room.

"I'm Special Agent Emily Prentiss," she continued. "I think you already know Dr. Spencer Reid. I just want to ask you a few questions about what happened earlier today, at the Tenement Museum."

She shuddered slightly at the mention of the location, and her eyes closed for a moment. "Bethany and I were inside," she began, opening her eyes; they were now full of tears. "Bethany needed to use the restroom. I wanted to retrieve my purse from the locker I rented."

"What about Aislinn, Molly?" Reid whispered. Her eye's flickered to the young agent.

"She stayed outside. There was a… text…. From you… Spencer… I think…." Her breaths were getting labored.

"What happened when you walked out?" Emily continued softly. Molly gasped.

"Take your time, Molly," Spencer whispered. "We're not going anywhere."

"There was a man…" she whispered. "H-he was standing at the edge of the… the alley. He h-had a knife… And he… he…" She whimpered, gasping and panting. "S-s-stabbed m-me… and then h-h-he…" Suddenly, she moaned, closing her eyes. Her arm snaked out, grabbing the sleeve of Reid's shirt.

"Find her, Spencer," Molly whispered. "F-find Aislinn. I know how much you care for her. I know how much she means to you… Please… Find h-her… A-and n-never let h-her g-g-go. You need her. And s-she n-needs y-y-you."

"I promise," Reid vowed fiercely, taking the dying woman's hand in his. "I p-promise I will find her, and I will bring her home safely."

"We need to go, Reid," Prentiss whispered a moment later. Reid nodded, and stood up to leave, but Molly wouldn't let go of his hand.

"S-s-s-stay…" She gasped hoarsely. "P-p-please."

"I'll stay," he promised with a whisper, sitting back down. Prentiss went outside, sitting in a chair in a nearby waiting room, picking up a newspaper with Aislinn's picture on the front and reading the first thing she opened it to, which happened to be the comics.

….

About 15 minutes later, nurses and some doctors ran in the direction of Molly Werner's room, and after another two minutes, Reid shuffled in. His face was pale, his eyes bloodshot, and his arms were wrapped around his midsection. Tears ran down his cheeks, and he wiped his nose on a Kleenex tissue he had in his hands.

Emily didn't need an explanation. She stood up, embracing her teammate as he buried his head in her shoulder, rubbing his back and whispering words of comfort as he wept for a dead mother, a lost daughter, and a family that was more broken than before.

...

_A/N: ...Yeah... I kinda had to kill her... I'm sorry (Seriously, I am... I know what it's like to lose a parent, and now Aislinn's lost both...) I'm evil, I know. Just don't hurt me! __And yes, I'm a bit of a movie buff... And a nerd... I mean, come on, ****__The Princess Bride_ is a classic! Plus, I love quoting my favorite characters...

_'Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Perpare to die.' ( I screamed when I realized it was Mandy; I literally cried, "OMG it's Gideon!"). Like I said, I'm a nerd!_

_And please review; I love hearing from you reviewers, the things you like and don't like. And I love it when you favorite and alert too, but I kinda wanna see the written love. So please, please, please... Let me, let me, let me... Let me get what I want... Please?_

_hahaha! :D ...And thanks to SayidRocks, Padme789 and NoelArdnek for their AWESOME reviews! I love you guys!_

_*~N_CBAU~*_


	4. Missing Pieces

_**This is just a really short chapter to let you all know that I haven't forgotten this story, or you guys. Sorry if there isn't too much Aislinn.**_

_**And that season 6 premiere... Ah-Mazing! I'm already looking forward to next week, but if the promo has anything to hint at, I should probably keep a couple tissues (or so) nearby when watching. :D**_

_**I own nothing; just playing around for fun, not profit.**_

...

Reid would later look back on the next few days as dark, dreary and depressing. After Molly Werner's death, the young profiler had thrown himself into the investigation, spending the rest of the afternoon of the first day, and the better half of the second day working to catch a killer who had someone he cherished at his mercy.

At one point Reid thought, _so this is what it feels like to be emotionally involved in a case._ It was a new experience for him, something that he'd never thought would happen to him. Case after case, he'd gone through the same feelings: Hope, anger, joy, sorrow… and the sinking feeling he always got when a case wasn't going to end well.

But this was different.

Right now, he stood in front of the map, his eyes drifting over the abduction sites. The team would be giving a profile tomorrow, but Reid felt as though they weren't quite ready. He felt that the profile wasn't complete enough; there was something missing. Something important. So he was spending the evening looking over the profile, trying to figure out what it was.

Next to the map of the city was a map of Central Park, with each of the recovery sites marked. But Spencer was paying no attention to them; he was thinking of something else. He was remembering the day he'd first met Aislinn.

"_Um…Hi," the girl muttered._

"_Hi." Reid began. "Umm, did you want something?"_

"_Umm…" She began hastily, "I… erm… I kinda owe you an apology." She muttered, her head hanging, one hand scratching at the peeling purple polish on her fingernails._

Reid released a breath he didn't know he'd been holding. He found that it was oddly enough, opne of his favorite memories of her. She'd seemed so nervous, and had admitted to him once that she'd been afraid that she'd say or do something weird the first time they'd met. He felt his mind wander again…

"_Wanna get away for a minute?" Aislinn asked suddenly. _

_Spencer nodded. The two of them stood up and crept away from the rest of the group on the deck. They walked down a set of wooden stairs from the deck, to another set of stairs, made of stone, to a wooden platform and a small metal dock. On the opposite shore of the lake, the sun was setting, creating a myriad of colors across the sky that was echoed in the peaceful beauty of the lake. _

"_It's so beautiful," Spencer gasped in surprise. _

_Aislinn smiled, leaning back on her arms as they leaned away from her body. "It's the best part of the day," she admitted. "I always enjoy coming down here to watch the sunset; it's better than anything else I can think of." _

"_Is it always this calm?" _

"_No," she said. "Sometimes there's the odd boat that passes by… Like there." She pointed toward a pontoon boat making its way across the surface of the lake toward the far side of the lake. "But mostly there isn't a soul on the lake. We do happen to do a lot of swimming, though." _

_Reid blushed slightly at the mention of swimming, and his last experience in the water. "I never really learned how to swim," he admitted. _

"_I could teach you sometime," she said. "But I'm not really a good teacher." _

"_That's fine," he murmured. "I just… want to get my bearings." _

_She chuckled, wrapping her arms around his chest. He replied the same way, resting his chin in her hair. _

_And there they stayed, watching the sunset together._

He was jerked from his remembrances with a jolt; his phone was vibrating. He picked it up, checking the caller ID

**Morgan**

Reid answered, putting his thoughts, memories and feelings aside, if only for the moment. "Reid here."

"Pretty Boy, Hotch wants you to come back to the hotel tonight. He doesn't want you overworking yourself."

"Morgan, I want to do this," Reid replied, glancing at the map. "I-I have to find her. I promised her mother, and I… I promised myself."

"I know you did, Kid, and right now, you need to save your brain power for tomorrow morning, when we give a profile to the police."

Reid couldn't say no to that. But he was still determined to drag this out. "I think the profile's missing something," he admitted. "I don't understand why this guy's taking these women… and Aislinn. I know it's some sort of delusion, but there's no reason or rhyme to it."

There was a rush of static as Morgan sighed over the phone. "Reid," he began. "I know you want to catch this guy. I _know exactly_ how you feel; I went through it, too. But listen to me… You're not going to do it with a low battery. I understand your relationship with Aislinn. You love her. But you're not doing her any favors by killing yourself trying to rescue her."

But Reid wasn't listening. "Relationship…" he muttered. "Relationship…"

"What are you getting at, Reid?"

"He thinks he has a relationship with them," Reid cried, jumping up. "Some kind of close relationship, like a… brother, or a boyfriend…"

"You think so?"

"Yeah," Reid replied in conclusion. "I-I think we have our profile."

"And now that you have it, will you PLEASE come back to the hotel? Like I said before, you aren't gonna do Aislinn any favors by pushing yourself into an early grave looking for her on this case, so get your butt over here, or I'll come get you myself."

Reid forced a slight smile. "Okay," he said, relenting. "See you in a bit."

He ended the call before slowly reaching into his pocket to grab a small inexpensive locket, letting it rest in the palm of his hand, the chain flowing from between his fingers. His hand closed around it, making a fist which he rested against his forehead for a moment, closing his eyes tightly.

Only to block out the world, if just for a moment.

….

_A/N: I wish I had an older brother like Morgan..._

_So Matthew has been cast as Jimmy Olsen in a future animated Superman movie, which sounds really exciting... And it's slated to be released ths coming spring... I am SO looking forward to that! I wonder how it'll play out for him! :D_

_And this Wednesday is supposed to be JJ/AJ's last episode... I really don't wanna think about that, but I've been kinda wondering what she would do after her BAU days... Review or PM me if you think this might make a good story in the near-future..._

_And I'm still very busy... I'll probably only be able to update and write on weekends. I may be able to do more, but I'm not making any promises. I think I might have already said this, but my postings and updates will be random at best... At least for now..._

_Please click the review button and tell me what you liked (and didn't like)._

_*~N_CBAU~*_


	5. On a Profile and a Prayer

_**Did anyone else cry while watching JJ on Wednesday? I found it so hertbreaking when Reid kept saying "They can't just take you away." Poor sweetie... :'( ...But I admit, I liked the whole interaction between Reid and Prentiss ("AGAIN with the dairy?" "I can't help it, I love dairy.") hahaha :) ...And how witty the episode was; it was almost like the writers were ripping at the higher-ups of CBS... :D**_

_**Next week'll be bittersweet; another awesome new episode, but no more JJ... **sniffle** My JJ leaving storyline totally differes from what the writers did for her. I'm kinda wondering if I should change it to mimic that...**_

_**I own nothing; I'm just playing with the character while the actors are away. I promise I'll put them back (However, I might 'accidently' forget to put Reid back... But I need help with my Lit Theory homework. And I'll bring him back as soon as it's finished! I PROMISE! ...It's okay, right?).**_

….

The next morning they gave the profile to a full police station. The entire Lower East Side branch of the NYPD was there, from beat cops to high-ranking officials from the highest offices in the section.

"We're looking for a man in his late 20's to mid-30's," Hotch began. "He's powerful, assertive and dominating. But as dominate as he is, he prefers the use of drugs in holding his victims rather than force. It shows that not only does her prefer dominance, but that domination would be impossible unless he can keep them from trying to stop him."

"This guy is not interested in sex," Morgan continued. "Sex is beneath him; he wants these women untouched."

"What, so he's cold? Or does he not like women?" One officer muttered, chuckling as he spoke, his fellow officers laughing with him. Reid's face clouded over; JJ could see his hands forming into fists as she stood off to the side. She could tell what he was thinking; an interruption like this was hindering the team from finding Aislinn, and they couldn't afford to let that happen.

"No," Rossi replied. "He feels that these women are pure. Hence the reason they are untouched when they are found, and left on one of New York's most beautiful, natural areas, Central Park. He cherishes them."

"This guy's also evolved to killing the mothers of these women if they're in the area," Prentiss added. "With Ariel Westin, her mother was already dead, having died when she was ten. Janie Cossetta's mother was in New Jersey, and the UnSub wasn't going to cross state lines to get the job done; he wants to keep a low profile and spend as much time as he can over the four days he has his victims before dumping them in Central Park. Melanie Summer's and Aislinn Werner's mothers were the only way he could work that part of his M.O. Otherwise he was another guy around New York taking women and leaving their bodies around the city."

"And he wants recognition," Rossi pointed out. "He wants to stand out."

"This UnSub is also under the delusion that these women are connected to him in some way," Reid continued. "Most likely in a platonic sort of way, like a sister, cousin or friend. And whatever role they play in his fantasy involves them being unconscious for most of the time. So it's safe to say that the source of his delusions died recently, so check recent death records. Look for young women in their late teens to early twenties who were in an accident or violent struggle that ended with them dying."

….

Aislinn opened her eyes to the sound of cars rushing from outside and the roar of a jetplane. Her head hurt from the drugs, and she still couldn't move.

Well…

Aislinn tried to move her left wrist in a rocking motion, the way she would have if she were practicing her violin.

It twitched.

It was an effort, but it was worth it. So worth it.

She then repeated the motion with her other arm and found that the wrist there moved, too; also with much effort, and even then it was just a twitch. She didn't even try to move her feet; she couldn't see them and she doubted that they were any better than her wrists and arms.

But she knew this was good. This was better than she'd hoped for.

But could she move her head?

She closed her eyes and stretched her neck. A feeling of pins and needles overcame her and she gasped, but somehow managed to turn her head to the right, toward the door, just as it opened.

Marcus was there, along with another man about his age who could've been his brother. They looked exactly alike.

_Twins,_ she thought.

But it was the woman who came in behind them that scared her. She looked motherly and kind, plump with blue eyes and salt-and-pepper hair, and wearing a blouse, denim jacket and skirt, but there was something about her eyes that seemed… off. Aislinn was suddenly reminded of Dudley Griggs, and how he'd thought she was suffering. She could still hear his voice….

"_It'll be alright," Griggs said soothingly, kneeling next to Aislinn and setting the needle down on the floor. She closed her eyes when she heard his belt come unbuckled, and whimpered when she felt the leather of said belt wrap around her forearm._

"_No," she gasped. "No, please. Don't… I don't want it. Please."_

"_Shhh… It'll be over soon."_

But Spencer had been there. He'd saved her.

"_Mr. Griggs, Aislinn is not in any sort of pain that I can see. She looks like a young woman who is clearly coping after the loss of her father…."_

"…._What do you want to save her from?"_

But Spencer wasn't here. He was working a case, looking for her. Trying to find her before her time ran out, whenever that would be.

Was he coming here?

Would he be here soon?

The woman leaned over Aislinn's bed, eying her softly. Her hands smoothed the blankets covering the younger woman's body, and Aislinn flinched when she kissed her cheek and forehead. Aislinn noticed a rosary hanging from the woman's jacket pocket as she stepped away, and saw a hospital badge pinned on her blouse. There was a picture, a name (Aislinn couldn't really see the name though, but it looked like... Grace... maybe), and a yellow sticker with the words **HOSPICE VOLUNTEER **in bold black letters.

"Oh, Hope…" the woman cooed. "I'm so sorry I wasn't there. But you'll pull through. I know you will."

Aislinn shut her eyes. Who was Hope? What did this woman want?

_Oh, Spencer,_ Aislinn thought. _Please hurry. Hurry up and find me, please!_

She kept her eyes closed until the woman, Marcus and Chase had left the room before she let the tears she had kept locked inside her for so long began to fall. Tears for her father… Her mother… Her brother… Her family, all of her aunts and uncles… Her friends from high school and college… Marcus…

And Spencer. She cried for Spencer most of all. She just wanted to see him again, to talk to him.

To hear his voice one last time.

Silently, tearfully, she closed her eyes and prayed for a miracle. A miracle she knew would come.

But would it come in time?

...

_A/N: I find it almost funny that this chapter took forever to formulate, but the next chapter basically halfway wrote itself! It might actually be going up later this weekend, or sometime during the week next week! :D_

_So... Don't be shy Please leave a review! ...My other reviewers are getting kinda lonely, right guys?_

_...Please? Every review means Aislinn gets rescued faster, and these UnSubs get what's coming to them quicker! :D_

_*~N_CBAU~*_


	6. A Little Hope

**_Again, I own nothing!_**

...

JJ and Prentiss walked into the conference room the team had been set up in upon arrival. "Results from the lab just came in." JJ began. "The drugs the girls were given… A sedative, most likely morphine."

Prentiss continued. "It's basically the same thing that happened during that case in Atlantic City, with Samantha Malcom. But unlike that case, the sedative and the sleeping pills were the only drugs in their system."

"He's playing out a fantasy." Rossi growled.

"Not he," Reid corrected. "_She._ The UnSub's a woman. A sister, or… or a mother, an aunt maybe."

"But witnesses at the Tenement Museum saw a _man _leaving the scene with Aislinn, Reid. Not a woman." Hotch cut in curtly.

"True, but he's not the mastermind behind this. He's just a tool, a means to an end. All the UnSub wants is the women, and the man is her way of getting them."

With that Reid stood up and raced to the glass board where their profile was laid out. "Rossi, you said that the UnSub was playing out a fantasy?"

"Yeah, why?"

"I don't think it's a positive one." Reid replied, pulling out his Blackberry and hitting speed dial.

_"My magical Mr. Mistoffles, speak and be recognized." _Garcia crowed.

"Garcia, I need you to look into death records here in New York. Car accidents, carjackings, muggings, shootings. Look for victims who were put on life support for four days, or who were sedated for four days before they died, and then cross-reference them with women in the medical field. I think you should start with hospice caretakers. This sounds like the work of a professional."

_"On it, Baby Boy!"_ She replied, but her tone became softer, more maternal as she continued. _"Is everything alright?"_

"Yeah," he muttered. "I'm just… worried."

_"Oh, Sweetie,"_ she cooed. _"Trust me, my little Jimmy Olsen; you'll find this evildoer and save your damsel in distress in a snap!"_

"I hope you're right," Reid replied. "I gotta go."

_"Take care, Angelfish,"_ she whispered. _"Muwah."_ And the line went silent.

"If the UnSub's a woman, we need to know what changes."

"The killings," Reid said. "She's not killing them because she wants to, but because she has to. She playing out the fantasy of a family member who died during an event the UnSub was unable to stop. A car accident, a mugging, something like that."

"You told Garcia to look into hospice workers?" JJ asked.

_"And I found her!"_ Garcia cried, her face lighting up a blank computer screen as well as the television screen in the conference room. Next to the image of the tech goddess was a picture of a young woman, with pictures of the missing women lined up at the bottom. _"Grace Duncan, age 48, hospice volunteer throughout the city, but spends most of her time at St. Barclay's. She lives in an apartment on the Lower West Side with her sons Marcus and Chase. She also had a daughter, Hope, who attended NYU until last fall, hoping to major in film studies with a minor in health care; apparently, she wanted to be a hospice worker like her mother, that is, if her film career fell through."_

"What happened to her?" Prentiss asked.

_"That's the thing, my lovelies,"_ Garcia said sadly. _"Hope Duncan was walking back to her dorm room one evening about a year ago when she was attacked by a mugger. The scumbag stole her purse, stabbed her in the stomach and slit her throat. She was found barely alive at the foot of that staircase from Home Alone in Central Park, and she spent four days on life support at St. Barclay's as a result before her mother pulled the plug. They never caught the guy who did it, which probably means the creep is still wandering the streets of the Big Apple."_

"That would be her stressor," Rossi concluded. "But why a hospice worker?"

"There's more remorse in the placing of the bodies than most murders like this," Reid reasoned. "Hospice caretakers are supposed to feel remorse when a person they're caring for dies. Also, they wouldn't believe in prolonging the inevitable. Most likely, the root of the delusion is that the child of the UnSub, in this case Hope, a female brunette in her late teens based on the victimology and the profile, was put on life support for four days following an accident or attack involving a knife. The UnSub, so used to caring for the dying family members of other families, was completely unprepared for the caretaking and death of her own child. That's the reason she keeps them unconscious throughout their capitivtity; she reliving the four days that Hope was on life support. Killing them and leaving them in Central Park is how she copes with what happened to her daughter."

"She's laying Hope to rest," Prentiss concluded. "She wasn't ready to lose her daughter."

"But no one's ever prepared for the loss of a child." Rossi pointed out.

"This UnSub thought she was, but she really wasn't," answered Reid. "When her child died, she fell deeper into her delusion, and thought she could see her dead child in the face of every young woman the girl's age, with any matching descriptions. And notice the picture of Hope. She has Ariel Westin's body type, Janie Cossetta's hair, which was the length of Melanie Summer's hair."

"And Aislinn?"

Reid looked at the picture of Hope and compared it to the picture of Aislinn, taking apart each facet of their faces before coming up with his answer.

"Their eyes," Reid finished. "They have the exact same shade of brown eyes."

"Garcia do you have an address?" Hotch asked.

_"Just a few streets away from the Tenement Museum on Water Street, the Lower West Side. 2112 Water Street, Apartment 206."_

"Let's move!" Hotch shouted.

But Reid was the first out of the conference room, racing toward the door of the station with Hotch, the team, Konopinski, Finnegan and Rodriguez right behind him.

….

_A/N: ...Next chapter is the awesome, epic climax! Bet you're all looking forward to that!_

_Please review! (I can't think of a more imagnitive way to get you to review; it's 11PM, I'm tired, and have to read for class tomorrow.) _

_*~N_CBAU~*_


	7. To The Rescue

_**I really liked 'Remembrance of Things Past...' And I LOVED the new title sequence! They totally revamped the theme song, and we got new pictures of the cast and characters... Very nice, but rather bittersweet, since JJ/AJ wasn't part of it.**_

_**I think we all know what'll happen this chapter...**_

_**And nothing is mine. Shame... **_

….

The woman, Marcus and his twin brother left the room for a few minutes, which turned into a few hours. Aislinn didn't mind; the silence; it was better than being stared at and preferred to being called a name that wasn't her own.

So Aislinn didn't think much of it when Marcus came into the room carrying a bottle of pills in his hand. She was more interested in telling him what was going on.

"Marcus, I need to tell you something, and it's really important," she began, remembering when Spencer had tried to talk Griggs out of killing her. "I want you to let me go."

"Why?" Marcus asked softly, setting down the pill bottle on the dresser. He was wearing a plain white t-shirt and jeans, with a white pair of socks on his feet.

"It's about me," she continued. "I have a boyfriend. He's in the FBI, a profiler. And… he's here, along with his team. They'll find you and put you in jail, unless you let me go. Whatever it is you need me for, I'm not what you want. You know this, you care about me. So, please… Do what's right… Let me go."

Marcus turned to Aislinn, and she saw for the first time that there were tears in his eyes. "I want to let you go, Aislinn," he whispered, "I really do. But my mother and brother… they think you're my little sister. They've thought this for the last four days, and not just with you. There were others before you. I've played along, and I've tried to get help for them, but it never worked. They just kept… doing this!" he gestured to the room around them. "And I'm so sorry, Aislinn…"

The door opened again, and the other brother, Chase, walked into the room and grabbed the bottle of pills from the dresser. He opened them and turned to whole thing over, emptying about twelve pills into the cap.

"It's time, Mark," Chase whispered. "Mom doesn't want to be here, and…." He trailed off, looking at the bed where Aislinn lay. "Open wide, Hope."

Aislinn shook her head, her eyes filling with tears.

Suddenly, the sound of a door slamming open and voices yelling filled the apartment. Chase dropped the pills with a jump as someone burst through the door, a gun raised in his hands. Behind him another man, also with a gun, and a scowl.

_They had come. She was safe._

….

They had pulled up to a disheveled building on the West End, sirens blaring. Reid had reacted first, jumping from the vehicle before they had barely stopped moving, his gun out, his face set in a thin, grim line. Morgan was right behind him, his gun also out.

"We're going in hot," Hotch called as he led the way to the front of the apartment, pulling out his own gun. "We don't know where Grace, Marcus and Chase are."

"But we don't know where Aislinn is!" Reid pointed out. "She might get… hurt."

"She won't," Rossi said. "Because as soon as you find her, you're getting her out of there."

"And I'll be helping you on the way," Morgan added grimly. "JJ'll be waiting outside to escort her to the hospital."

Reid nodded, tightening the grip he had on his gun as Hotch opened the door to the apartment and they ran up the stairs,

"FBI!" Hotch called as he reached the level the Duncans lived on, his gun trained on the hall.

"Grace Duncan!" Rossi called. "It's over; let the girl go!"

They approached the apartment door, and Morgan took point, kicking in the door at Hotch's signal.

"FBI!" Rossi called, leading the NYPD and the BAU into the apartment. Rodriguez led Prentiss and Hotch into the kitchen/dining room, Rossi ran into the living room with Finnegan and Konopinski hot on his heels. Reid and Morgan ran down the hall, Morgan opening the doors and Reid looking into the rooms to see if they were there.

A closet.

A bathroom.

A master bedroom.

They were in a small bedroom that appeared to have been made for a young woman. In the room was Grace Duncan, her sons Chase, who was startled into dropping a bottle of sleeping pills, Marcus, who sunk to the floor weeping…

And Aislinn, lying on a bed, her mouth open in surprise and relief.

Reid ran into the room just behind Morgan, gun raised. He was in time to see Grace Duncan race toward him, her mouth open in a soundless scream. Morgan fired his gun at her and she fell, blood pouring from her back, her eyes open, glassy and lifeless.

Chase leapt out the window, glass raining into the apartment as he dived toward the ground, screaming as he fell, attracting the curiosity of the neighbors. He landed with a sickening _crack _on the pavement below. They would later retrieve his body from the pavement below the apartment, bloody, bruised and broken.

Morgan calmly walked over to Marcus, gently helping him rise to his feet before quickly cuffing him. The man's eyes were still swimming in tears, and he was continuously repeating "I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. Please forgive me. Please forgive me. I should've helped them. They weren't right in the head."

"You can worry about that later," Morgan muttered, thrusting the younger man out of the door ahead of him. Marcus' sobs continued to echo through the apartment, despite his absence from the room.

Reid paid no attention to them; his thoughts were on one person. He kneeled on one knee next to Aislinn's bed, stowing his gun and reaching out to stroke her hair. She smiled at him.

"You came," she croaked tiredly. "I knew you would. I was hoping and praying… And you finally came."

Reid saw her eyes fill with tears, and he took her hand in both of his.

"I knew you'd hold on for me," he whispered in response. "You're one of the strongest people I know. You aren't one to lose a fight; I've seen that firsthand." With those words, though the effort seemed to hurt her, she slowly raised her head and buried it in his shoulder, weeping. He wrapped his arms around her trembling body, his fingers interlacing with her hair, and he began rocking her gently while tears of his own fell down his cheeks.

It was over. She was safe.

...

_A/N: There are a few more chapters to come!_

_And I'm starting to worry about the silence in the review spot... Please review; it doesn't take very long... Thanks to SayidRocks, Clarkispotamia, Padme789, and Noel Ardnek for their awesome reviews, plus everyone who has favorited and alerted this story! You are all amazing!_

_*~N_CBAU~*_


	8. Starting to Say GoodBye

_**I just wanted to get this chapter off my chest; I think a few of you are a bit upset about Marcus Duncan's predicament. The good news is, he's NOT going to jail; he's innocent after all... I do believe I have it figured out... :D ...No real Reid or Aislinn presence, but a lot of JJ love!**_

_**Also, since this story is coming to an end, I've noticed that there are people not showing so much of an interest to this series... So I have a new poll up on my profile, as well as some ideas for a few crossovers (They're all Criminal Minds X-Overs FYI) Basically, I want you to ...ahem... 'Reid' (LOL) the summaries I've scrounged up and vote for which one you want to see come up. I think I may also post the first chapter of each story to see what y'all think! **_

_**That doesn't mean I'm discontinuing the series; I'm just putting it on hiatus for a bit, giving you all a quick break. It will return... Someday...**_

_**Again, I own nothing pertaining to Criminal Minds; I watch the show, write and read fiction based on the show, I bought a t-shirt, I crush on Matthew... Basically, I'm borrowing someone else's book, one that I'll return as soon as I'm done.**_

….

Spencer didn't leave her side, not even when the paramedics came into the room, hooking her to an IV drip and moving her to a gurney; he had gone through so much in order to see her alive again, and he wasn't leaving her side until she was alright.

Aislinn clung tightly to him until the paramedics arrived; she released him from the hug she'd greeted him with upon his arrival, but still grasped his hand. When the paramedics tried to get her to let go, she started shaking, clinging tighter to Reid's hand and shaking her head, giving the EMTs no other choice but to let the young profiler ride with her to the hospital.

Not that Spencer minded; he'd secretly hoped that they'd let him. The truth was that he was as loathe to leave her side as she was to leave his.

Hotch called her family in Minnesota and told them the news; they had been informed of Molly's passing from Spencer himself, and were ecstatic that Aislinn had been rescued. Jakob had been on the Jersey Shore with friends while his mother and sister had been in New York; Morgan and JJ took charge of going there to inform him of the events of the past week. They returned that evening, Jakob Werner right behind them.

"As soon as we told him he wanted to come here," Morgan admitted to Rossi as they stood at the window between the conference room the team was set up in, and the NYPD's office bullpen, watching the young teenage boy in the police station. He was being comforted by family friends from the shore, as well as some of Molly Werner's siblings that had arrived earlier that evening. "I can see why he'd want to be here; he lost his father and his mother in the span of one year, and nearly lost his sister."

Rossi looked at the tall, dark man next to him. "That'd tear me apart," he admitted.

"It tears me apart, too," Morgan told his older colleague. "When my father died, I spent a few weeks lost in a fog. It was painful, to say the least. Knowing that I had to be the man of the house, that I had to grow up, threw me for a loop. For a long time, I didn't know how to act around my friends. They'd be playing pick-up football games, running wild around the neighborhood… And then I'd always try to stay out of trouble, work hard at school, stuff like that."

"It must've taken quite the toll on you," Rossi mused.

Morgan nodded. "Finally my mother cornered me before school one day, and told me that after school, I was gonna go hang out with my friends, and do normal, ten-year-old kid stuff, and that she wanted to see me come home at dinnertime worn out from some activity with my friends and classmates."

"And that was it?"

"That was it." Morgan concluded, turning away from the window.

….

JJ was putting pictures of the victims into boxes when Hotch came into the conference room.

"Hey, Hotch," JJ began, rushing toward him with some manila folders. "I just wanted to let you know that the lab results came back just a few minutes ago. Marcus Duncan played no forensic part in the abductions or murders of Ariel Westin, Janie Cossetta, Melanie Summers or Aislinn Werner. His testimony in the interrogation room combined with these findings says that he… He was innocent, Hotch. He did nothing to these girls. He never touched them."

Hotch glanced down at the medical report, his eyes quickly scanning the page before looking up with a sigh, his shoulders slumped.

"Someone needs to take the blame for this, JJ," Hotch admitted. "And I really don't want to send an innocent man to jail. But the mastermind behind this crime is in the morgue, as well as her accomplice. I don't want to send him to jail, but it appears that we have no choice in the matter."

"What if I told you we may have found a way to save Marcus Duncan?" JJ said suddenly. "In Hope Duncan's autopsy report, there was a stray piece of DNA that the crime scene unit ran through every database they could find, and came up with nothing. I called Garcia, asked her to run it through our databases, as well as Interpol, and she came up with something."

"But you just said that the NYPD didn't find anything," Hotch pointed out.

"Because the NYPD didn't check Interpol," JJ handed Hotch a folder. "Claude Delacour. He was in Hope's film class, but dropped out due to insufficient funding; he had defaulted on some of his student loans and scholarships."

Garcia appeared on a computer screen that was still set up in the conference room and continued the sorry tale. "With no money for his education and no money for a return trip to Paris, not to mention his parents disowning him and freezing all his bank accounts, Claude became a distraught, angry mugger who attacked his victims on the street. One night, he saw Hope walking down the street and attacked her. He blamed her for everything he'd lost, because she was getting the education he wanted. Afterwards, he took her wallet, jewelry and jacket, pawned it off and used what he got from it to start a video rental store in Chinatown."

"Morgan and Rossi are going to pick him up now." JJ added. "Technically, he is the one who caused Grace Duncan to become a killer. More than likely, once we tell him about what happened, he'll confess. We can simply deport him and let the French authorities handle him."

When do they want you to start?" Hotch asked.

JJ smiled sadly. "Agent Burke spoke to me while you were with Marcus. The Pentagon called him and they all reached an agreement. He still wants me to be part of his unit, but I'll be working as a liaison between his team and the Department of Defense at the Pentagon. Will and I won't have to leave D.C, but we're still setting up a house here in New York. We already paid off the down payment, and the pay for this new job is supposed to be a lot of money."

At Hotch's look of surprise she sighed. "They both want me, something Emily said about being 'too good' at my own job. They both couldn't come to an agreement about where I should go, so they decided that this would be better. It was more money than I could turn down, and if Henry's going to Yale… Or CalTech, seeing as Spence can apparently get him in with one phone call… he's gonna need it."

Hotch smiled, despite the severity of the situation. "Anything else?"

"Rossi said to take care of myself, and Reid called me a minute ago; Aislinn's sleeping. He's looking to see if she can get out later tonight, but he doesn't think that'll be possible. He also said not to wait up for him; I think he's staying overnight."

Hotch clapped a hand on her shoulder, and softly squeezed it in a friendly manner. "I'll miss you," he said finally. She nodded, attempting a half-hearted smile even as tears began falling down her face.

….

_A/N: Another Chapter down... A few more to go! :D_

_Okay, so again, please feel free to go to my profile, check out the crossovers I have listed and vote for your favorite. If you have any questions about the other fandoms listed in the crossovers themselves (Who's Artemis Fowl, for example... I may have mentioned him in 'Ever Present, Because Immortal.'), or something of that sort, drop a review or PM me and I'll try to explain. You can also leave a review or PM me if you want me to keep going on the series instead of the crossovers! I'm still planning on posting them either way, but I'm willing to finish this series first._

_And... Please review! Please?_

_*~N_CBAU~*_


	9. Sharing Similar Experiences

_**Hello, hello, hello!**_

_**Here's Chapter 9... Looks like there'll be a LOT of h/c in this one, as well as a little humor... Just some Reid Aislinn h/c and Morgan/Garcia teasing and loving! (Gosh I love those two; I wish they'd get together already...) And I loved this most recent episode. Garcia made a very good Liasion, but I like it when she can just be herself, the Mozart of the B.A.U. I have never seen her so stressed; I really wanted to give her a hug (I've been that stressed and worse; it ain't pretty). Kudos to Morgan and Hotch for letting her know she'd perfect the way she is!**_

_**And I love how Reid is such a non-threatening, non-alpha male... I hope we get to see more of him in similar roles! ;)**_

_**Again, I own nothing; it's all CBS. I just play with it! :D**_

….

Spencer Reid walked through the empty silent white halls of the hospital. It was nearing midnight on the fourth day of what would've been a horrible serial kidnapping/murder case, but instead of the flurry of racing to find the UnSub, there was silent rejoicing; they'd caught their killers, even though both had died, and that the third member of their party was innocent. Their victim, Aislinn, was safe, sleeping gently in a small hospital room.

The doctors had agreed to let her out tomorrow morning, to Spencer's slight chagrin. But they had a point; the drugs she'd been given had kept her in a sort of stupor until the team had arrived. Now, she had to be weaned off those drugs and regain her strength from the past four days.

Reid still shuddered at the idea of drugs being used to restrain and even kill an innocent girl like Aislinn. He knew what that was like. There were nights where he'd lay in the dark, and imagine for a moment that the needle was still being poked into his elbow. There were times where he felt a slight craving for the drug itself. And there were moments where the smell of dirt made him cringe. And fish… Ever since Georgia, he had never looked at fish the same way again.

But today was not that day.

As he walked down the hallway, Spencer looked back on a recent, more happy day. The last few hours of what had been the most relaxing weekend he'd had in his life, it seemed.

_The weekend itself had been perfect; they'd spent most of it on the water, trying out the brand new boat, hiking, and sipping coffee at The Brick House Café. Aislinn taught him how to swim, and managed to coax him onto an inner-tube, despite his slight worry about how unstable it might be. Thankfully, Spencer had turned out to be rather good at keeping his balance on the water, only falling off twice. But before long, they were back in St. Paul. He had a job to get back to and she had a trip out east to get ready for._

_Spencer had checked the ticket Garcia had bought him online; it was a mid-afternoon flight, leaving around 3 pm, and it was estimated that he would get in around 8 pm Washington D.C time, giving him the entire morning to spend with Aislinn._

_They had taken a walk around the St. Catherine campus, feeding the ducks at the pond, wandering around the buildings on campus. Spencer walked into the chapel, staring up at the balcony that Dudley Griggs had jumped from. He'd walked past Aislinn's old dorm hall, standing underneath what had been her old room, and eyed her new dorm room window with some surprise, all while she explained her classes to him._

_Finally, they had ridden deeper into St. Paul, having lunch at a small family-owned Italian restaurant, Cossetta's, talking about the weekend they'd experienced, and remembering the two cases that had brought them together in the first place before Jakob drove them to the airport._

"_Have I ever told you that I really don't like saying good-bye?" Aislinn asked him._

_He smiled. "I recall you said something similar in front of a dorm hall on a rainy April afternoon." He paused, looking at the impatient face of her brother, who was tapping the steering wheel with boredom and impatience, a very bad combination._

"_And what did you say when I said that?" she asked him teasingly._

_He pretended to think for a moment, his brows furrowed and his eyes scrunched up as he did. "I said that we could 'choose not to say goodbye,' and then you-" _

"_I quoted Albus Dumbledore," she giggled._

"_I still want to see you again," he admitted, taking her hand and kissing it, the way he remembered his mother teaching him; he could almost hear her say 'ladies consider you a gentleman when you kiss their hands.' As he did this, he slipped something he'd hidden in his hand into hers and she gripped it tightly, only opening her hand when his withdrew._

_She gasped. A small, perfectly round white stone from the lake was tucked into her hand. She looked up at Spencer, who had sheepishly tucked his hands into his pockets, a shy, sweet grin on his face._

"_Take care of yourself, Aislinn," he whispered, kissing her forehead. "I'll see you soon." And with that, he picked up his go-bag and walked toward the automatic doors. But before he could pass through, she tapped him on the shoulder. He turned, and gave her one last hug, into which she muttered something that he almost missed, since she was pressing her face into his jacket._

"_I love you, Spencer."_

_He grinned, kissing the top of her head, which smelled of the scent of lavender from her shampoo._

"_I love you, too, Aislinn."_

He stood outside her room for a moment, collecting himself before opening the door. It was dark, save for a small crack of light coming from under the bathroom door, and the light from the street outside.

Quietly, he snuck into the room, softly closing the wooden door before walking over to the bed, and the easy chair sitting next to it. He sat there for a moment, watching Aislinn sleep. The way she breathed deeply, sighing in her sleep, how she twitched, rolling over to face the young man, her hand wrapping itself around the pillow. He reached out, stroking her hand.

"I missed you," he admitted softly. "I was so worried about you,"

"I thought it was all a dream," she whispered suddenly, and Reid could see that she'd opened her eyes. "That you came in… Saved me…. I thought I was gonna wake up again, and be back in that room, in the bed… That I was never going to leave." She paused, looking at Spencer sadly, her eyes half-lidded from sleep; it was taking all her energy to stay awake and speak to him. "Have you ever felt like that, Spencer?"

Spencer stared at her for a minute before standing up and turning to sit on the edge of the bed. Aislinn quickly moved over to make room for him, curling up with her head on his chest, her tired eyes gazing up at him. He wrapped one arm around her shoulder, his hand resting on her upper arm. Neither of them spoke for a moment, keeping a companionable silence.

"There was a case," he began in a whisper so soft that she had to strain in order to hear him speak. "Were were in Georgia, where a killer was killing so-called 'sinners,' and posting them on the Internet. JJ and I went out to interview a witness who had called 911 when he saw a prowler outside the hose of one of the victims."

"He was the killer, wasn't he?" Aislinn whispered. Reid noticed how much she sounded like a child.

He nodded. "Yeah, he was. He… He cornered me in a cornfield, overpowered and abducted me. I woke up in a cabin in the woods, tied to a chair, with a gun pointed at my face. I spent the next two days being tortured while in a drug-induced haze. I nearly died."

"How did you get away?" she asked, lifting her head to peer blearily at him.

"He had three different personalities: One would play Russian Roulette with the gun; he would put a bullet into a revolver, spin it and aim it at me. All I could do was hope that… the one time he pulled the trigger wasn't the one time I got killed. Another was the one who tried to get me to 'confess' my sins. He would beat me, and one time he nearly killed me, he became so violent. After I 'confessed,' he made me dig my own grave, but I managed to get his gun away from him and… I shot him."

"And the third one?" she asked after a moment. "What did he do to you?"

"He… He saved me," Spencer admitted. "Brought me back from the dead. But he also drugged me. A lot. I shot my tormentor, but I killed the one person who tried to help me during that experience."

Aislinn wrapped her arms around his midsection, laying her head against his chest again. "I'm so sorry," she whispered.

He stroked her hair, resting his chin on the top of her head. "I know," he replied. "But you don't need to be sorry. It wasn't your fault, and you weren't there. You hadn't even met me back then."

Neither of them spoke again for a moment.

"Marcus was like the third personality you spoke of," she whispered suddenly. "He took care of me. He fed me, and he tried to keep his brother and the woman… his mother… from hurting me. He talked to me when I was going stir-crazy in there." She paused, and Reid saw her eyes closing as she started to surrender the battle against sleep. "Please, don't let anything happen to him. I don't want him to go to jail. He didn't do anything. It wasn't his fault."

Reid rubbed her back, nodding. "I promise," he whispered. "I promise." He watched her for a moment before adding, "And this… This wasn't your fault, either. You were in the wrong place at the wrong time. There's nothing wrong with that. It's just circumstance." _Like with me, _he thought, but he didn't say it out loud.

He heard her sigh softly, and he turned to see that she had fallen asleep, her fingers tightly gripping his shirt as she slept.

Spencer felt a slight smile come up on his face as he lay down next to her, wrapping his free arm around her body, smiling slightly at her before he closed his eyes and let sleep spirit him off after her.

….

Morgan came in the next morning, Garcia right behind him, a silly grin on her face. In her hands there was a large coffee and a chai latte, complete with two doughnuts and two small bowls of fruit.

"Reid's gonna throw a fit, Mama," Morgan whispered hoarsely as they approached Aislinn's hospital room. "You know how he feels about this kind of thing; he doesn't like being babied."

"I'm not babying my Baby Boy," Garcia reasoned. "I'm just… treating him. Spoiling him rotten. And I'm giving Aislinn a proper 'Welcome Back' breakfast. I mean, everything she went through over the last four days… It was horrible enough, reading the autopsy reports. But clearing out that apartment… Hearing from Marcus what his mother and brother did…"

"Baby Girl, relax," Morgan soothed as he opened the door, following Garcia into the room. "Aislinn doesn't have to tell us anything, that's for sure. Marcus spilled everything, and of course we have the reports. Everything's gonna be alright."

When Garcia didn't answer, Morgan sighed before waving his hand in front of her face. "Hey, Penelope, Sweetness…" he began.

"Derek, look." Garcia pointed. Morgan turned, and smiled when he did so.

Spencer and Aislinn were curled up together in the hospital bed. His head was just a bit higher up on the pillow than hers, and his arm wrapped around her back. She was snuggled into his chest, with both her hands entangled in his shirt, her head resting on the pillow inches from his face. Both of them were sprawled out on the bed, exhausted from the last four days.

"Awww," Garcia cooed, producing a camera from her tote bag and setting the goodies down on the table in the room. "This calls for a picture!"

Morgan chuckled. "You realize I'm never gonna let the kid live this down."

"Be nice, my statuesque God of Chocolate Thunder," Garcia reprimanded. "You leave him alone when it comes to this. I'll have enough pictures of the two of them here for you to relive this moment as much as you want."

Morgan gave her a wounded expression, but he smiled slightly as he looked at the two of them asleep on the bed together.

"I'm proud of you, Kid," he said. "You got her back."

...

_A/N: This isn't the end; there's still a few more chapters, for sure two, maybe three, and that includes an epilogue._

_Please be sure to follow the detour signs to the review button at the bottom of the page. If you need assistance, or are simply unsure as to where to go, please feel free to ask one of our friendly staff members for directions._

_Again, please follow the detour signs to the review button at the bottom of the page!_

_And also check out my new poll, and vote for which story I should write next._

_*~N_CBAU~*_


	10. Going Home

_**Hey, I'm back! As for why I was gone for so long... Midterms (Didn't end well in some cases). And life (Some recent attacks on and around campus; guys have been approaching women and trying to get them to go with them). **_

_**I can't come up with better excuses... **__**But I did post a quick oneshot; I hope you all checked out "PDM Invaders and Mission Based Killers," and if not, then please go have a gander!**_

_**Also, I was unfortunate enough to miss the most recent episode; a friend invited me to a showing of the AWESOME (In my opinion) movie 'Inception' (Leo was my first love, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt worked with Matthew Gray Gubler during '500 Days of Summer'). But I know where to find "clips" (Read: The whole episode uploaded on YouTube in 5-video installments. And I don't mean the highlights CBS posts online to taunt those who missed it). But as soon as it's posted, I'll watch it! :D**_

_**I own nothing; I'm just a poor college student with a laptop and a violin living on Laughing Cow cheese, Campbell Soup and V8 Fusion juices, as well as the school mean plan!**_

...

By the end of the week, Aislinn had been released from the hospital. The hotel room that she'd been staying in with her mother Molly and her cousin Bethany had been emptied of personal effects. While Bethany's suitcase was back in her home in New Jersey, and Molly Werner's was sitting in a police station in New York, Aislinn's was sitting in Reid's room ready to go wherever it's owner planned to go.

The only question was _where _Aislinn was going to go.

Home to Minnesota seemed to be the wisest decision, but when officers approached the young woman about her plans upon her return, she shook her head. 'I don't know yet,' and 'I'm not sure,' were her favorite phrases concerning her future at the moment.

Meanwhile, her brother Jakob had already arrived in Minnesota, when members of Aislinn's family had picked him up and driven him back to their home in St. Paul; the Werner's home in Hastings had yet to be sorted through, and it appeared that Aislinn's father's brother was not willing to wait much longer.

After she had been released, Aislinn and Spencer took a cab toward the police station. Neither of them spoke; she was curled up into a loose ball along part of the backseat, her head resting on the window, her feet lying next to his leg. Spencer watched her for a moment. His mind spun as he watched her. He wanted to help her; she looked so forlorn and lost sitting there.

On a whim, he signaled the driver to turn into a street that ran by Central Park, and the driver obliged, pulling to a stop on the edge of Literacy Way.

Aislinn?" he asked tentatively, tapping her foot gently with his finger. She glanced up at him. "Want to come with me for a second?"

She nodded, uncurled herself from her seat and followed Spencer from the cab and down the way. Again, neither of them spoke. Venders, artists and musicians were littered along the way, and two people dressed as Spongebob and Elmo wandered around, trying to get photos with tourists. A small herd of children ran toward a playground, one of them releasing a blue balloon into the sky.

The two young people ignored them, heading down a paved path toward the stairs and fountain where the body of one of the victims had been found. But neither of them dwelled on it, and before they could make it there, Spencer took Aislinn's hand and guided her along another path, toward one of the many bronze statues in Central Park. It was only when they were standing in front of it that he finally let go of her hand.

Again, neither of them spoke; unlike the heavy silence within the taxi, there was no need to here in the park. For the both of them, there was an intangible feeling in the air, as if the known world had faded away for a moment in order to encompass the small area that surrounded only them. Cars on the streets still passed by, honking and screeching, and children still ran around in the park. Tourists and locals alike mingled through the landmarks as they listened to street musicians, ate, or sat down to enjoy the view, or for a drawing by one of the many caricature artists around the vicinity of the park.

It seemed as though hours, days, years even, went by before one of them spoke.

"When I was little," Aislinn began. "It was a childhood dream of mine to come here and sit by this statue. I told m mother and my father just how much I wanted to walk this city, stand in this spot…." She sighed, folding her arms around her middle. "I just never thought about how it'd be when I arrived here. I've seen so much since I was a kid, and sometimes I wish I could take back those years, if just for a moment. I know that what has happened in my past has defined me, changed me from what I was, and has made me what I will be, I can't shake the feeling that… well…." She trailed off, looking up at Spencer for a moment before turning back to the statue before her. In return, he draped an arm around her shoulder, rubbing his hand gently on her shoulder as she laid her head against her side.

"You're right," he stated. "Your past has defined you. Because of the events of the past 19 years, you are the person I see before me. A strong, proud, happy and independent woman who, despite things that no person should experience in their lifetime, has risen above and beyond what most people would expect."

Again, neither of them spoke. The sun continued its trip across the sky and the shadows got longer as the night approached. Suddenly, Aislinn ducked out from under Spencer's arm and approached the statue, studying it for a moment before turning to the young man in front of her.

The reason I love this statue," she admitted. "Is the inscription; it's inspiring, heartfelt, and makes people think, especially if they take the time to stop and read it." And with that, she traced the lettering on the monument as she began to read.

"'**Dedicated to the indomitable spirit of the sled dogs that relayed antitoxin six hundred miles over rough ice, across treacherous waters, through Arctic blizzards from ****Nenana**** to the relief of stricken Nome in the Winter of 1925."** She turned back to him, repeating the last three words from memory. **"Endurance · Fidelity · Intelligence.'"**

Then, she walked back toward him, her eyes meeting his. "I've been meaning to ask you for a while now…" She began in earnest. "I want to go with you. When you go back to Quantico, I want to be with you. I'm of age, overage, actually. I can still go to college in Minnesota, but I want to live with you."

Spencer paused, surprised. "Are you sure?" he asked.

She nodded, her eyes blazing. "Very," she answered, determination in her voice. "I want to be with you. I understand that you won't be there very often, but I want this. I won't be upset if you don't think it's a good idea, but this is something I'd like to do. If it doesn't work out, I understand."

He said nothing, opting instead to stand next to her. This time, she wrapped both her arms around his waist, completing the one-armed embrace he gave her when he wrapped his arm around her shoulder again.

"I can live with it," he replied. "I'd be honored to have you live with me."

As Spencer spoke, his phone rang, and he reached into his pocket to answer it.

"Yeah, Hotch… We'll be at the station shortly… Yeah, about that… Aislinn's coming with us… It's our decision, and we're standing by it… She'll be living with me; we can get a new apartment if the one I have isn't big enough… Wait, who told the pilot? Morgan? Figures… All right; we'll see you there… And Hotch? Thanks…" And with that, he hung up and turned to Aislinn, a smile turning the corners of his mouth. She smiled right back; Aislinn didn't have to ask Spencer what had been said. She already knew.

_They_ were going home.

...

_A/N:_

_I'm thinking I'll wrap this up in one more chapter before dropping the playlist on you... I had Dave Matthews Band, Evanescence, Brandi Carlyle, U2... _

_Also, I have an idea for a story that I'll be posting within a few days. It'll involve our favorite profilers (of course) and... Pirates! (Don't ask; it all stems from a weird dream that I'm still trying to put into words). And I have an idea for The-Vampire-Act's latest contest that I'm itching to work up!_

_And my final note for the day... PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW! _

_*~N_CBAU~*_


	11. Epilogue: A Dream

**_This is the last chapter; the next one is, of course, the playlist and sequel information_**

**_As for why this hasn't been updated in so long... Midterms, Classes, Finals, Holidays, Other Stories... It was hectic, to say the least._**

**_I don't own Criminal Minds; I just bought a tee shirt last summer in New York, I got Season 5 for a Christmas present (Now I can watch "Mosley Lane" whenever I want! SCORE! **happy dance**), and I totally (heart) MGG! _**

….

_Home is a name, a word, it is a strong one; stronger than magician ever spoke, or spirit ever answered to, in the strongest conjuration.__ ~Charles Dickens_

The sun was setting, casting bright colors across the clouds as the BAU jet flew toward home. Each of the occupants was pursuing their post-case activities; Hotch was calling Jack and Jessica from his phone in a back corner, letting them know that he'd be home for bedtime. Rossi was reviewing the case file across the aisle at the small table there, eyes darting sleepily across the paper. Prentiss was reading on the other side of the same table, JJ was sleeping in another chair and Morgan was listening to his music, tapping his fingers as he looked over at the couch on the other side of the front of the plane.

Reid sat at one end, a book in his lap as he scrolled through it, his entire focus on it. Curled up on the other side, facing the back of the couch, her fingers wrapped around the blanket she was holding as she dozed, was Aislinn. Even as he watched, the girl muttered something in her sleep before rolling over to face the rest of the jet. He forehead furrowed slightly for a second before it smoothed out and she started softly breathing.

Morgan raised an eyebrow as he looked at Reid, who gave him a look in return. _Be nice, _was what the younger man seemed to be implying. Morgan chuckled as he leaned back in his chair.

"So what's the plan for you two?" he whispered.

Reid shrugged. "We're going back to my apartment," he whispered back. "Then, I'm going to look for a bigger apartment for us to live in. The lease on my old place is just about up anyway."

Morgan grinned. "I'm sure your current place has plenty of room!"

"That's what she said," Reid muttered. "But to be honest, it's about the size of her old dorm room, and the kitchen/lounge combined into one room. And neither of those rooms were very big."

"I saw that lounge," Morgan pointed out. "It looked pretty big to me. If anything, the dorm room was tiny."

"Either way, you're not talking me out of it," Reid stubbornly replied. "I was already looking for another place; I was hoping that when she got out of college, she would come live with me. I was looking for places, and I found one that looks rather promising… I want one with two rooms, at least…."

"I don't mean like _that,_ Pretty Boy," Morgan urged. "What I'm saying is that, one day, she's gonna want to settle down, you know?"

Reid was confused. "No I don't know."

Morgan turned off his iPod. "She knows how our schedule works; she can anticipate that sometimes you won't be home at night. But she knows you call her every night, write her almost every day… Kid, she loves you, and I can tell you love her."

"I know that," Reid pointed out, "but what does that have to do with her wanting to settle down?"

Morgan sighed; his friend could be so clueless. "I mean that someday, she may want… something more than just roommates, something more than just… a boyfriend/girlfriend relationship."

"…Marriage, Morgan? Really? Are you _insane_?"

"No," Morgan sighed. "More than just marriage… I mean the two-story house with the white picket fence, the family dog, the 2.5 kids… She grew up with that, Reid. Most girls her age are looking for the type of guy they want to start a relationship with. Someone who'll stand with them forever, start a family with them… She's gonna want someone that'll grow old with her, the whole 'sitting on the porch in a rocking chair watching the sunset' deal. Her parents are never gonna get that. My father's never gonna get that…"

"Okay, okay," Reid growled. "Let's say for theory's sake that Aislinn and I get married. A big, fancy wedding, or a small service in Vegas with my parents, the team and her closest family and friends. A tropical honeymoon, sure, the two-story house, perfect, and the dog… I can deal with that…. But kids… Morgan, you know how I handle kids."

"What about Henry? And Jack?" Morgan insisted. "They love you! And when we have cases involving kids, your magic tricks keep them entertained until they're reunited with their parents."

"But it's always someone else's kids," Reid pointed out. "And magic tricks only keep kids entertained for so long… Not to mention all the different influences that peers and popular culture can have on them, or the statistics on child abductions and other crimes against children." Reid looked down at Aislinn's sleeping form. "Or the fact that I could develop schizopherena, or pass it down to any children I may have. That would be an unnecessary risk, and I don't want to burden Aislinn with that."

"Reid, she understands that." Morgan reasoned.

"Actually," Reid looked up at Morgan again. "There are lots of rising statistics on birth issues; today, 1 in every 100 children born in the United States is diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Disorder, and 25 percent of children are born with Down's Syndrome."

Morgan stood up, crossing over to kneel in front of his younger co-worker and clapped both his hands on the younger man's shoulders. "Sometimes you have to take risks when starting a family." Morgan implied. "Look at Hotch; six years ago, he was a successful agent with a wife and newborn son. Now he's a single parent trying to give his son the best upbringing possible with a single parent income working with our pay grade level. And we don't get paid much."

Reid nodded in agreement. "So what should I do?"

Morgan stood up. "Think about it," he whispered.

And almost unbidden, Reid's mind played with the notion of a small white house in Norfolk or McLean, a white picket fence surrounding the front yard….

_A beautiful Golden Retriver with the same temperament as Linus, Aislinn's family's dog, bounded out the front door, a grin on his face. _

_He saw himself getting out of his old Volvo to find Aislinn walking up the drive, the dog's leash in her hands, dressed in jeans and a tee shirt. And when he turned toward the house, two children ran from inside the front door._

"_Daddy!" They screamed, flinging themselves into his arms. And when he looked at them…._

_The boy had Spencer's mother's hair and eyes, and Aislinn's ears, and the girl was holding herself the way her mother did: Confidently, strong… But, he noticed, she looked more like her father…. His brown hair, his lips… Aislinn's nose and eyes…._

"Spencer? What's on your mind?"

He jolted from his reverie to find Aislinn was stirring. Stretching, still half asleep, she looked at him fondly. He smiled.

"Nothing," he admitted; he noticed that the rest of the team was getting ready for the jet's landing. "Ready to go home?" he asked.

She nodded, curling up next to him as the plane began to go down, and he felt his arm wrap itself around her shoulder; his ears popped as they went lower, but he didn't notice.

Morgan had been right to say 'think about it.' And it was a thought that would not easily go away. But he liked it. It was a nice dream to think of. Maybe, someday… it would be a reality.

...

_A/N: I know I sound like a scratched CD or record, but please review! Playlist and stuff should be up soon!_

_Love from,_

_*~N_CBAU~*_


	12. Next Time on Criminal Minds

Stay tuned for scenes from our next episode...

...

Hello, everyone!

Right now, I'm planning either a few one shots, or a longer story showing more growth in the relationship between Spencer and Aislinn. I mean, they've just moved in together; it's going to be interesting….

For sure, though, I'm planning two, maybe three case related stories (One of them will be starring the as-of now winner of my poll, Professor Rothschild/ Henry Grace). The second one will be a case file story where Aislinn experiences what it's like to be at home on a case, and not with the team. That one will be up _before _the Rothschild re-appearance story.

The third one (if I write it), will have to do with the current story lines in season 6, both Reid's headaches and Prentiss' impending confrontation with Ian Doyle and eventual departure. (Reid's headaches may be a one shot, though, depending on if the writers continue it beyond "Corazon.").

….

Playlist:

**Catch My Disease… Ben Lee*** (Reid's arrival, Morgan's teasing; plays until JJ goes to Hotch to tell him about the transfer)

**Sweet Sacrifice… Evanescence** (Aislinn is kidnapped, wakes up in UnSub's apartment; Reid finds out Aislinn is the next victim)

**I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For… U2** (Flashback to Reid's arrival at MSP for weekend with Aislinn)

**Eyes on Fire… Blue Foundation** (The team begins the investigation; Aisninn's flashback)

**Your Star… Evanescence** (Visiting Molly Werner in the ICU; Molly Werner's death)

**Never Too Late… Three Days Grace** (Reid completes the profile; Reid's flashbacks)

**Come to Jesus… Mindy Smith*** (Aisninn meets the UnSub and begins to hope for a miracle)

**No Matter What… Jakob Dylan** (Reid and Aislinn are reunited)

**The Story… Brandi Carlile **(JJ says good-bye)

**Here With Me… Dido*** (Reid visits Aislinn in the hospital; Garcia and Morgan visit Reid and Aislinn in the hospital)

**Wherever You Will Go... The Calling* **(Reid takes Aislinn to Central Park, Aislinn asks Reid if she can live with him)

**You & Me… Dave Matthews Band **(The plane ride back to DC)

*****Songs are accoustic versions from Cities 97 Music Samplers; I would prefer you listen to the accoustic versions, but you are more than welcome to use the non-accoustic versions for your listening pleasure

….

Also, I thought I'd update anyone who is interested on my other projects. If any of these stories sound interesting, please go check them out!

_Sanctuary:_ This is a story that is following the current Prentiss storyline, with one exception: Reid knows about Doyle. On the show, it appears that he is starting to catch on, or at least knows that Prentiss is worried about something; I wouldn't be surprised if he confronts her soon… This will be updated as regularly as my schedule will allow; I have classes and work I have to do this semester, and those WILL come first to all stories.

_Guardian Angels Are Protecting Me:_ AU involving young Reid and Morgan in Witness Protection together. I'm still working on this, but updates for this one will be few and far between until "Hook or Me This Time" is completed.

_Hook or Me This Time: _Reid is kidnapped by an UnSub who thinks he's Captain Hook and that Reid is Peter Pan. I have a feeling there will be four more chapters in this story: A dream sequence, Reid's recovery, a final visit with Johnny (My OC, who is going to reveal something important in that last chapter), and an epilogue (With a completely surprising ending; I never thought that it would happen like this…).

I also have a White Collar/Criminal Minds Crossover in the works. This will have appearances by characters from other shows like NCIS, House and Bones.

And I may possibly include a Reid torture story based on the current Prentiss storyline that will have Reid/Prentiss friendship (Maybe more than friendship). I haven't decided on a title for this one yet, but expect a poll to go up soon.

Special thanks to SayidRocks, padme789, Noel Ardnek, Clarkispotamia, and RogueSquirrel for your awesome reviews!

I'll post the next story when I have a moment; I'll leave a note in the summary when I do.

*~N_CBAU~*


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